Friday, July 27, 2012

Dutch drummer Han Bennink is a creative force and a fearless improviser who isn't afraid to go out on a musical limb while at the same time reflecting his hard swinging and vaudeville drumming roots. He's another drummer I admire (like Matt Wilson) who isn't afraid to inject a little humour, playfulness and fun into his playing (music IS supposed to be run right ya dig?)

Bennink was just in Calgary last month performing with Canadian saxophonist Brodie West during Calgary's Sled Island music festival. Unfortunately I missed their performance but it wasn't for a lack of trying! I was playing a gig on the vibraphone across town that night but I scrambled to pack up my vibes in my car to make the tail end of their show. Unfortunately they only played a short 35 minute set, so by the time I got there I was out of luck and they were long done! I should have hauled in my vibes anyways and set them up for an impromptu jam....I'm sure he would have been into it : )

But anyways, here's a great one of Han in action on the drums and on the floor (four on the floor right? haha) accompanying a tap dancer (further to my previous post about Baby Laurence earlier this week):

Bennink is also an incredible brush player and, as you can see here, he doesn't need much more than a pair of brushes and a snare drum to make it work!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Years ago my teacher in Montreal, Chris McCann, gave me a cassette copy of "The Drums" featuring the great Jo Jones. This is an important resource for all Jazz drummers to listen to and study as Jones demonstrates his unique and highly swinging approach to the drumset while as discussing (and imitating!) some very obscure drummers, influences and techniques on the drums.

If you don't own this yet and you are serious about Jazz drumming, you should probably get it.

Just sayin'...

One part that really got my attention, in particular, is the portion where Jones talks about the influence of the great tap dancers on the development of his own playing style. I was very intrigued by this and I've blogged a bit before about this important relationship between tap dancing and Jazz drumming (with a shout of course out to Mike Tarrani who has also addressed this as well over at his fine blog Music for Drummers). Tap dancing (and dancing, period!) had a tight-knit relationship with early developments of Jazz drumming and the two influenced each other, hand-in-hand. While most of the great Jazz drummers that we listen to and admire were fully aware and immersed in this, this notion seems mostly lost of most of today's generation of Jazz drummers and Jazz musicians (with many exceptions however!)

In particular, over the course of the recording of "The Drums" Jo Jones cites the influence of a hoofer by the name of Baby Laurence as someone who had a huge influence on his own particular approach to dealing with rhythm on the drums.

See here for a clip of Laurence in his later years giving Sammy Davis Jr. a run of his money!

I was interested to learn more about this important tap dancer and his wicked approach to rhythm. Fortunately for us here's a documentary on the life of Baby Laurence "The Jazz Hoofer" to check out:

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Those of you who follow my blog regularly will know that Billy Drummond has long been one of my favorite contemporary Jazz drummers. His dynamic and hard swinging style and his great beat and giant cymbal sound have always appealed to me. He's also got quite a nice cymbal and drum collection...

I first heard Billy play during the late 90s while I was still living in Montreal. Drummond was touring quite a bit with pianist Renee Rosnes as a trio those days and I caught their act several times with many great bassists including the likes of Ed Howard, John Patitucci and Scott Colley.

Some of my favorite Billy Drummond albums that I always like to recommend include:

As a leader:

"Native Colours"

"Dubai"

"The Gift"

As a sideman:

Tim Ries - "Universal Spirits"

Chris Potter - "Vertigo"

Vincent Herring - "Secret Love"

Actually....any of these fine albums that Billy recorded on the Criss Cross label are worth checking out!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Special thanks to our Irish FOTR correspondent Conor Guilfoyle who hipped me to these great clips featuring the great bassist Rufus Reid along with Mulgrew Miller on piano and Lewis Nash on drums from Reid's excellent bass instructional DVD "The Evolving Bassist":

Monday, July 2, 2012

Welcome to July and a belated happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians out there! This is going to be the last Monday Morning Paradiddle for a while and blogging will be on the lighter side for the next couple months. I'll still be posting reasonably often but I've got a few other things on the go these days that need my attention. Summer hours, ya dig?

Here's a collection of things to check out to get the week started:

-Thanks to the kind people over at Vic Firth who bring us these rhythm section master classses with educator Steve Houghton:

Steve is an exceptional educator and always has articulate and insightful comments on how to improve ones musicality. His book "Studio & Big Band Drumming" was an important book for me when I was younger and prepared me for the logistics of dealing with how to interpret a drum chart and play within a big band.

-Allaboutjazz.com brings us an interview with the daring, eclectic and dynamic drummer/composer/visionary Tyshawn Sorey:

This is a blog about jazz, jazz drumming and all things unrelated. Thanks for stopping by!

A Bit About Me...

Jonathan McCaslin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. Jonathan began playing the drums at the age of nine. He progressed through the Regina Lions Junior Band and the music program at his high school, Campbell Collegiate, soon developing a passion for playing the drums and jazz.Ultimately, Jon's interest in music led him to enroll in the Jazz Studies program at McGill University, graduating with distinction in 1999.

While at McGill Jon had the opportunity to study with some of the finest jazz educators in the country including Gordon Foote, Kevin Dean, Jan Jarcyzk, Chris McCann, Andre White, Michel Lambert and Dave Laing. He also attended the prestigious summer jazz workshop presented by the Banff Centre for the Arts in 1997, where he performed with Canadian jazz greats Hugh Fraser, Don Thompson and Kenny Wheeler.

In the spring of 2002 McCaslin completed his Master's in Jazz Studies at McGill University where he studied jazz drumming, improvisation and composition.

In January 2003 Jon released his debut CD, “McCallum’s Island”.Featuring his quintet, the CD contains an exciting collection of McCaslin’s original compositions, featuring himself and his band.The release of this CD was followed by a twenty-day tour of Western Canada, performing to enthusiastic, capacity audiences. During March of 2003 Jonathan was the recipient of a fellowship from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and attended the “Betty Carter Jazz Ahead” residency in Washington, D.C. Along with twenty other distinguished young jazz artists, McCaslin was featured with such jazz icons as Terence Blanchard, Carmen Lundy, Winard Harper, Curtis Fuller and John Clayton.

McCaslin’s quintet performed at the 2003 edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival and was nominated for the General Motors Grand Prix du Festival (awarded to the most outstanding Canadian group). From 2004 until 2006, Jon toured North America, Asia and Europe with the high-energy, critically acclaimed music production troupe “Barrage”. Featuring a cast of seven world-class fiddlers and a four-piece band, this dynamic show featured high-energy music and fiddle traditions from around the world set to upbeat choreography and movement.

In 2015, Dr. McCaslin received his Doctorate through the University of Toronto and completed his dissertation on the conceptualization of contemporary melodic jazz drumming. He is currently based in Calgary, Alberta where he maintains a busy performing and teaching schedule across Canada.